weekend in chicago!

it's funny that my blog is named "adventures in a^2" but i had my adventure in chicago last weekend! :)

here are some pictures from that weekend:

Here comes my MEGA BUS!!! I got a roundtrip ticket for $48 dollars!!!

Pitstop at Love's.

No Chevron or Valero's.

When you walk in, they say, "Love's welcomes Mega Bus to its house!" Lovely.

Skip the bus ride, my attempt to get to Annique's place by the subway, and walking into Annique's beautifully decorated home.

Lunch at Feast in Wicker Park

Pictured: Chicken Kabob with humms and Curry Quesadilla. SO GOOD.

WALKING AROUND DOWNTOWN

Chicago is known for its architectural beauty. Janet, you should come and visit Chicago whenever you get a chance. You would love it!!!!

Out of all the beautiful buildings, one of the only pictures that I took was of this. A female architeture was so tired of all the buildings looking like a phallic symbol, so she designed this one. You guess what it is.

CELTIC FESTIVAL

During the summer time, there is a different festival every weekend at Lincoln Park. One of the well known ones is Taste of Chicago in July. Overpriced, but still a fun festival to attend!

We saw bunch of Scottish bagpipers, Irish fiddlers and line dancers + others who were dressed up in their country's trademark costumes.

This dancer was sooo good!

I don't know if you can see her, but there was a little girl in an Irish traditional clothing who danced to the music above.

Yeah, totally not Celtic at all. But enjoying the Irish concert. :)

MILLENIUM PARK

Millenium Park project is one of Chicago's major projects to clean up downtown. There is a serious allegation of gentrification and the surrounding neighborhoods around the downtown area are still "sketchy". Nonetheless, Millenium Park has become a symbol of Chicago for tourists and residents of Chicago!

The BEAN is one of the statues(?) that they have at the park. I obviously was playing around it. :)

One part of the two part fountain. The face chages every 5-10 minutes and after few minutes, water spews out of the face's mouth. KIDS LOVE IT. The faces are pictures of people of Chicago.

Dinner, Comedy Club & Wrighley Park

Dinner at Francesca Forno with Annique and Sam! I surprised them with a little special dessert for their birthdays!!! :) YAY for being 24! ;)

Comedy Club called Improve Olympics. Improv is BIG in Chicago and seeing that Annique knows all the happening spots in Chicago, we had to hit up this place!

Audience cut up newspaper articles and put them on a bulletin board. Then the cast members come out, choose random ones, and do improv on them.

SO HILARIOUS. A Must-hit again spot for next time. :)

After the comedy show, it finally occurred to me that Wrigley Park meant... the BASEBALL Wrigley Park! I got excited and took a...well, SEVERAL pictures in front of it.

Eat that, Scott!

At Goose...something. We were supposed to go to the Dueling Pianos, but they didn't open until 10 PM. We decided to grab a drink, wait for Jina (our other friend), and head over, but we ended up staying there the whole time.

I shall go to the Dueling Pianos on my next visit...with Andrew. *feel the pressure* :)

Not pictured: Jina Kim -- we forgot to take a picture. haha

After a long day & evening, back at Annique's place. I actually took way more pictures of her place, but I'm sure she wouldn't want her home exposed to the blog communmity.

Take my word--it's well decorated. :)

LAST DAY

What makes Annique an absolutely amazing hostess isn't simply that she has a sleeping place, fresh sheets + towels ready for you. It also isn't because she bakes a few days before (or on the day of) your visit, so you will have goodies to eat. It's probably because she makes you HOT breakfast even after going to bed at like 3 in the morning.

Pictured: Basil scrambled egg, italian sausage, tea, and homemade zucchini bread. I had TWO, she had one. =P

After breakfast, Annique dropped me off at Sam's church and I attended his service. After service, we had this AWESOME chicken for lunch. Not a big fan of fried food, but loved it.

THEN, he took me to this yogurt place. IT WAS SO GOOD. Berry Chill is the name. I had been so deprived of a good yogurt in A^2, so it was AMAZING. :)

Before I had to get on the return bus, Sam took me to the other side of the town to see the Chicago skyline!!!! The weather was PERFECT, so it was even more beautiful.

Next time, I want to visit the nearby museums and walk around that area. :)

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As for this weekend, I'm taking it VERY easy. I have been a little bit under the weather, so it is my goal to lose the funk by the end of this weekend. Erica from the fellowship group that I attended on Wed dropped a care package for me!!!! So sweet of her. We had just met, yet she was so loving and caring! I was feeling a little bit lonely because for the first time, I realized that I was far away from everyone that I knew who would take good care of me. But I was happy to be reminded that God is sovereign and knows our hearts' desires. :)

Anyways, Amy and I had PIZZA for lunch (haha we were totally craving it) and we will soon be going to Trader's Joe! Yipeeeeeee! :) :)